CM Storm Trooper Review

Introduction:

Cooler Master is at it again with another case on the market. After being thrilled with their HAF 932 Black Edition I thought I would never buy another case. However, once I get an up close and personal look at their newest release I might be checking out the market again. The CM Storm Trooper is a full chassis designed with extra space for all your hardware upgrades as well as a durable, built-in handle to lug it from LAN party to LAN party.

I personally have a love for full tower designs over the majority of other case form factors. After working with all the extra space, especially the added room for cable management behind the motherboard, going back to a smaller case is hardly worth the lower cost. I’m looking forward to seeing everything the Storm Trooper has to offer, so let’s check it out.

Closer Look:

After a long day of classes I drove home to find a tall box sitting inside the mudroom door. Thankfully, the delivery guy was kind enough to place it out of the rain. Due to the stature of the package I knew it was another case for review, but I took one look at it and was pretty excited to dig into the box. It isn’t the ordinary brown box with some black and white drawings that play tricks with your mind while you try to figure out what it actually contains. Instead the box has an actual image of the case with its subtle red lighting from the lower fans and power button. It almost looks scary; I better leave the lights on tonight!

Turning the box around to the back side we find eight different languages bragging about some of its unique elements. The features that seem to be different than most of the "usual" cases are the three grommet ports for water cooling, the Storm Guard (protects your parts from being stolen), built-in dust filters for the fans, and two removable/rotating HDD modules. I cannot wait to play with this case because there is so much more to do with it than just load it up with hardware.

The sides of the box are a little less exciting, but they go on to list the specifications and give one more look at the case. The punch-in handles on the box make it easy to transport, and they are well needed since this case is already heavy even when completely empty. Enough about the box though, let’s open it.

The top of the box opens up just like any other box; nothing too difficult for any of you out there. The case itself is wrapped in a soft foam packing bag and sandwiched between the usual foam end caps. It fits snugly in the box with little room to move, which means it will enjoy a nice safe ride on the delivery truck. Despite being tightly packed, pulling it out of the box is a little easier than most cases due to that featured top handle. With such tight tolerances between the box and foam, getting it out of the the packaging without the handle would have been a two-person job.

Enough with the packing already! Most of you do not care how it shows up as long as it is in one piece. Even if your delivery man likes to throw packages around I can confidently assure you the Storm Trooper will arrive safely at your doorstep.